Using the Project Management Maturity Model, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 1 The Need for Strategic Planning for Project Management

Introduction

For more than 50 years, American companies have been using the principles of project management to get work accomplished. Yet, for more than 40 of these years, very few attempts were made to recognize project management as a core competency for the company. There were three reasons for this resistance to project management. First, project management was initially viewed as simply a scheduling tool for the workers. Second, since this scheduling tool was thought to belong at the worker level, executives saw no reason to look more closely at project management, and thus failed to recognize the true benefits it could bring. Third, executives were fearful that project management, if viewed as a core competency, would require them to decentralize authority, to delegate decision-making to the project managers, and thus to diminish the executives’ power and authority base.

Misconceptions

As the twenty-first century approached, project management began to mature in virtually all types of organizations, including those firms that were project-driven, those that were non–project-driven, and hybrids. Knowledge concerning the benefits project management offered now permeated all levels of management. Project management came to be recognized as a process that would increase shareholder value.

This new knowledge regarding the benefits of project management allowed us to dispel the illusions and misconceptions ...